5k – that parkrun made my legs hurt

“Oh my gosh are you OK? Shin splints can be really serious, you should stop running for a while and go and see the doctor.”

I don’t want to trivialise a bit of pain because as you get fitter you will almost certainly experience many different pains. Mostly and hopefully they will be because your body is responding to the exercise stimulus and building a faster, better and stronger you.

Or of course it could be an injury which you don’t want.

Remember that you need to rest so your body can rebuild itself after exercise. So the next day do a different exercise (ie not running) or just rest.

However one trick I have found THAT WORKS FOR ME. Is to take WHEY PROTEIN after exercise. That’s the stuff that bodybuilders use. No I don’t want to end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger (probably spelt wrong, sy). I just figured that it might maximise my body’s muscle building response to the exercise I had just done. I’ve been doing that for 6 months and found the following

1. I’ve lost a bit more weight than I expected (protein curbs my appetite)

To finish off on a serious note. When I was in my late teens I got shin splints form running too much, too hard, with rubbish shoes. Thanks Mr Hi-Tec. I could hardly walk let alone run for 6 months…if you have shin splints or a torn calf muscle you really hurt and it doesn’t go away.